How the Dark Knight is similar to superhero movies:

• There’s a clear villain to our hero
• There’s a clear moment where the hero has to make a moral decision
• There’s a moment where we thing the hero is going to lose

How the Dark Knight is different to superhero movies:

• The hero isn’t liked at the end- In superhero movies the hero is always loved and praised at the end however at the end of this movie the whole city of Gotham hate him and the hero willingly takes the hate.
• The villain is motivated by personal gain- The Joker’s only motive is just to cause chaos. Many villains in superhero movies want world domination and/or money. However Joker doesn’t show any of these desires. It shows it in one of his lines “All you care about is money. This city deserves a better class of criminal. And I’m gonna give it to them!”.This line clearly shows that he does want superficial things he just something more meaningful.
• The heroin dies- Classic superhero movie, City in trouble, hero saves everyone and the hero gets the girl. However, in dark knight Batman doesn’t get Rachael, she dies at the middle of the movie. It paint’s this idea that there is no happy ending for our hero which is defiantly not what superhero movies show.

Overall, I don’t believe that The Dark Knight is full superhero movie. It does have elements of a superhero movie. However The Dark Knight  has many contrasting elements with the superhero genre. The Dark Knight is it’s own thing and is a mixture of different genres.